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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22630273">They were friends first</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kendas/pseuds/Kendas'>Kendas</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:54:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>764</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22630273</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kendas/pseuds/Kendas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I was doing a meme on my lj – give me a pairing/fandom/character and I’ll write you 20 random facts from my own personal cannon. Inell asked for HP: Hermione/Blaise – 20 things and as I was writing them it became more a short ficlet than just a list of facts. Anyway I’m kind of really pleased with how it turned out so I thought I’d archive it here too.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Blaise Zabini</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>They were friends first</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><b>A.N:</b> I was doing a meme on my lj – give me a pairing/fandom/character and I’ll write you 20 random facts from my own personal cannon. Inell asked for HP: Hermione/Blaise – 20 things and as I was writing them it became more a short ficlet than just a list of facts. Anyway I’m kind of really pleased with how it turned out so I thought I’d archive it here too.<br/><b>Disclaimer:</b> None of the characters or locations used in this story are mine. They belong solely to the imagination of J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers and Bloomsbury.</p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <b>
      <span class="u">Abridged</span>
    </b>
  </p>
</div>They were friends first.<p>Before that Hermione had found him arrogant, pretentious and not a little self absorbed.</p><p>She didn’t like him. Barely paid him any notice. He wasn’t one of the Slytherins that pushed her buttons like some she could mention, so she never hated him like she might have, but she didn’t like him much either. Nothing worthy in her eyes to like.</p><p>She watched him more in sixth year than any other. Couldn’t say why, but he seemed different. A hint of pensiveness she’d never caught before. But then no one caught much of anything in Blaise.</p><p>It was only in their sixth year she realised that he was one of the few students that spent as much time in the library as her.</p><p>It was only in their sixth year that she let herself admit she found him beautiful. She still didn’t like him, but she made herself admit that he was at least pleasant to look at.</p><p>She chastised herself for a whole week for judging someone on something as banal and superficial as their looks.</p><p>She felt a little better about the judgement two years later when she caught him sniffing books in the library at Grimmauld Place. Because she had been right. Blaise was beautiful, but not as beautiful as when he has a book open and cradled in his palm, his head bent, eyes closed and nose buried in the pages.</p><p>It wasn’t until the letter and the first time she saw him after school, a firm set to his jaw and Draco’s body limp in his arms that she realised there was more to Blaise.</p><p>She never knew about his mum. Not until it was too late and things were said that she couldn’t take back. Somehow, she’d bypassed all the gossip on Nefertari Zabini. Somehow she’d underestimated him more than she thought. She looked closer after that.</p><p>Blaise had never underestimated her. Blaise never underestimated anyone. Underestimating people was a flaw that could prove too deadly.</p><p>He watched her at school. Appraised her. He did the same with everyone. But with Hermione once the case of evidence was built he stayed the hell away from her for as long as possible.</p><p>Blaise knew she’d break him.</p><p>Blaise knew she’d be the only one with the ability to keep his attention for more than a week. The only one other than a boy he knew would not survive.</p><p>She was, but he never made it easy. Even after he was trapped with her in Grimmauld place, researching rituals and runes to help her and her friends’ hunt in payment for the protection of the boy lying in a bed upstairs - still mostly comatose and incoherent when he wasn’t from too many <i>Crucios</i> - even then Blaise fought against it.</p><p>Hermione fought back. Blaise thinks that’s what finally broke his resolve. Pansy had been right. He was picky. But that fight in her just about ticked his final box.</p><p>They never stopped being friends. If anything the fact that they were able to be friends surprised Blaise more than the fact he found Hermione attractive. They argued so hard sometimes over various points he wondered how things never turned ugly. They had once. But only that once. Just one off the cuff comment and Blaise’s control had snapped. Hermione had never mentioned Nefertari again. </p><p>When it happened it was in the library. Of all the places it could happen it had to be in a damn library. Blaise thinks that says something a little too true about both of them.</p><p>Blaise didn’t realise he’d underestimated her until it was too late. He’d only underestimated his mother before her. He regretted that mistake. It’s what had taught him that underestimating people could be dangerous. But he didn’t regret this one. He revelled in it and was glad he’d been wrong.</p><p>Hermione was definitely not the repressed, little frigid bookworm Draco had always proclaimed her to be.</p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <i>~Nox~</i>
  </p>
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